


I Met a Boy

by bonniepride



Series: Foster AU [2]
Category: Big Hero 6 (2014), Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Fluff, Fredashi, M/M, cute fredashi and hezra origin stories, hezra, nerds being nerds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-17 20:59:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15469929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bonniepride/pseuds/bonniepride
Summary: Hiro and Ezra are settling into life living with Hiro's long lost brother, Tadashi, and aunt after two years being on the run from the foster system. Things are going well, and Tadashi decides to bring his boyfriend, Fred, over to meet his little brother so they can all get to know each other better. Fluffy couple origin story telling ensues.





	1. Chapter 1

I met a boy. He made me smile, he made me wait. He crossed the street, he crossed my heart.a He fixed his shirt, he bit his lip, he let me up. I met a boy with crazy shoes and baby blues. The way he moves is changing my whole world. I met a boy. -William Michael Morgan (revised)

Hiro stepped out of the shower, rubbing his hair dry before wrapping the towel around his waist and starting to get ready for the day. It was weird, after all these years, finally having a bathroom that was actually his own. Well, not exactly his own--he had to share it with his boyfriend, Ezra, and the older brother he’d only just recently discovered he had, Tadashi. It wasn’t just the bathroom, either--given how small the apartment above his newly acquired aunt’s cafe was, there was a lot of sharing going on. Still, despite having to share an attic bedroom and a myriad of other things with two other guys, this was the first time in almost fifteen teen years that Hiro finally knew what it was like to actually have a home. The house of the abusive foster family that both Hiro and Ezra grown up in definitely hadn’t been home to either of the boys. Probably the closest thing they’d ever had was the beat up purple rover Hiro had bought with the money he’d made working a part time job the day after they’d run away together--it had been where they’d kept their few worldly possessions and even slept some nights when they couldn’t even afford a cheap motel room with the money they made working odd jobs in the towns they would stop when they were about to run out of gas (that was how they’d picked their rather sporadic stopping points--they were doing their best to keep the police off their tails considering they weren’t adults yet and their foster parents were probably trying to find them just to avoid getting in trouble for losing them.) Still, even that hadn’t been exactly a home. As cheesy as it sounded, Hiro knew that Ezra was his home--wherever the man he loved was, that’s where he wanted to be for the rest of his life. But now he actually had something that he could consider a real home and a family--and not just in a metaphorical sense, but an honest-to-goodness biological family! Hiro had been orphaned at such a young age that he had little to no recollection of the older brother he’d been separated from in the system, but by some miracle they’d been reunited when Hiro and Ezra had run into him in the cafe owned by the boys’ remaining aunt who had been trying to find her younger nephew for years with no luck. After that rather surprising but not unpleasant reunion, the two boys had been invited to come actually live with the family and, despite a bit of reluctance to begin with on Ezra’s part (years in the system had made both him and Hiro wary of strangers, even ones who claimed to be related), they had finally come to be able to call the place home.   
This had been a little over a week ago. In that time, Ezra had started working at the job he’d come here to the city to get in the first place--it was only an entry level position in the print room of a prominent newspaper, but it was at least something. Hiro, despite his aunt’s insistences that he didn’t need to repay her in any way, had started taking a few shifts in her cafe, and in his free time Tadashi helped him start applying for the same university that he himself studied at, the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. If the fact that Hiro had graduated from high school at the age of thirteen didn’t impress them, the fact that he was the younger brother of the robotics prodigy and inventor of the famous line of Baymax nurse bots would definitely give him an edge in the rather competitive pool of SFIT hopefuls. Of course he would still be on his own when it came to the Expo (the event that SFIT hosted where potential students presented projects in hopes that a professor would be impressed by their work and choose them to come study directly under them in their lab.) Tadashi was already talking his little brother up to his own mentor and one of the most famous professors at the university, Robert Callaghan (creator of Callaghan’s Laws of Robotics and co-creator of the Catmull-Callaghan Spline), but the teen genius had some pretty major ideas going in his brain for an invention that would surely blow all of the judges away. Tadashi had granted him full access to his garage workshop for the sake of the project (he would have let him use the equipment in his lab at SFIT but that might have been seen as cheating), and in the evenings after work Ezra would join the two out there, watching them work or often convincing the two of them to take a break for the night, which usually resulted in late night movie or tv show marathons and the occasional video gaming tournament. It was a bit of a crazy life considering how drastically things had changed, and Hiro was still trying to convince himself that all of this was really happening--that it wasn’t just some crazy dream that he would eventually wake up from. He was also trying to find his balance when it came to the relationships in his life--for so long it had been just him and Ezra, but now he suddenly had an older brother and an aunt too. He wanted to get to know both of them, and it was obvious that they were both very eager to have him back in their lives again. They were being extremely accepting of Hiro’s boyfriend as well, never failing to tell him just how happy they were to have him living with them and doing their best to include him in things. Still, there was just the tiniest bit of tension there--Ezra wasn’t used to having to share his boyfriend, and Tadashi, being the overprotective brother that he’d turned out to be, seemed to still be having a hard time accepting that his precious otouto, who had been basically a baby when he’d last seen him, was almost a full-grown adult and already having a very adult relationship with his boyfriend. Right now there was a very delicate balance in the household and Hiro was doing his best to try to make sure that that balance was maintained. Today, though, he hoped that maybe he could take a tiny break from all of that hard work (although things did have a potential to spiral into an even more uncomfortable state than they already were)--it was the weekend, which meant no work or school for any of them, and, for the first time, Hiro was finally going to be meeting his brother’s boyfriend.   
Tadashi said that Fred had been wanting to meet Hiro from the minute he’d texted him to inform him of his little brother’s reappearance, but both because the other man had been halfway around the world with his parents at the time and because Tadashi had wanted the two teens to have time to settle into their new home, they’d been putting this meeting off until today (not that Tadashi had by any means been out of communication with his boyfriend--Hiro sometimes wondered if his newly discovered nii-chan ever put his phone down with as much as he texted him!) Hiro was extremely curious and, admittedly, a bit nervous to find out what kind of guy his brother was dating. Would he be super stiff and reserved, like Tadashi tended to be at times, or a complete and total opposite personality-wise, a rebel of sorts? The elder Hamada reassured him countless times that Fred was completely normal, but what exactly did “normal” mean to him?  
“Hey, Hiro, you almost done in there?”  
The teen was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of his boyfriend’s voice on the other side of the door.  
“Yeah, come in!” Hiro calls after pulling on his shorts.  
“Morning.” Ezra smiles as he comes through the door.  
“Morning yourself,” Hiro answers, coming over to wrap his arms around his boyfriend’s waist and peck him on the lips.   
“Sleep well?”   
“Mm! You?”   
“I was sleeping next to you, how could I not?” Ezra answers playfully.  
“Don’t let Dashi hear you saying that,” Hiro answers, rolling his eyes but smiling--it wasn’t exactly a secret that he and Ezra had an extremely intimate relationship and that they been sharing a bed for some time, but even though he was gay and active with his own boyfriend Tadashi still seemed to be having a hard time adjusting to the fact that the little brother who had only been a toddler when he’d last seen him was now a grown almost-man and acted accordingly.   
“He’s downstairs making breakfast, so I think we have a couple minutes to ourselves,” Ezra purrs in his ear.   
“Oh no.” Hiro gently pushes him away, doing his best to look stern. “I know your ‘couple minutes’, and I just took a shower, thank you, I don’t want to have to take another one.”  
“You’re no fun,” Ezra pouts.   
“I’ll make you a deal--you behave today and I’ll see if I can find a way to get Tadashi and his boyfriend occupied for long enough for me to give you your reward,” Hiro answers with a coy smile.  
“With a promise like that, you know I’ll behave!” Ezra grins down at him.   
“Good.” Hiro smiles and pecks him on the cheek before pulling on his shirt. “Ready to head down?”  
“Maybe if you give me a proper kiss as an extra incentive to be good,” Ezra answers, his hands resting on his boyfriend’s hips.   
“Okay, okay!” Hiro laughs before pulling him into a warm, passionate kiss.  
What was supposed to be a short kiss of course ended up becoming extended into a good five minute long mini-make out session until Hiro finally had to force them to stop--as much as he wanted to stay up here with Ezra all morning, they did have some pretty important stuff going on today and Tadashi would kill them if they ditched on him. So, with the promise that they would pick things back up that night when they had more time and privacy, the two boyfriends head down the stairs for some breakfast.  
“Good morning, guys,” Tadashi says with a warm smile when they enter the kitchen. “Sleep well last night?”  
“Yep!” Hiro agrees, taking a seat at the table. “You?”  
“Pretty okay,” Tadashi answers with a wry chuckle. “Kind of had a hard time falling asleep since I was so excited about today!”  
“Excited about seeing your boyfriend?” Hiro asks with a slightly teasing smile.  
“Excited about my little bro and his boyfriend getting to meet my boyfriend, yeah,” Tadashi answers with a playful grin as he dishes scrambled eggs and bacon out onto plates and then brings them over to the table. “C’mon, eat up, Fred’s going to be here soon!”   
“I’m eating, I’m eating!” Hiro answers with a wry chuckle, picking up his fork and eagerly digging into the delicious looking food.   
Just as everyone was finishing up eating, suddenly the sound of the doorbell ringing fills the small house.  
“He’s here!” Tadashi cries, his entire face lighting up.  
Hiro has to do his best not to laugh as his older brother scrambles to his feet, his fork forgotten and falling to his plate with a small clatter. Wow, he must be really gone on this guy!   
“You want us to come with, or do you want a few minutes alone with your boyfriend?” the younger man asks with a tiny smirk.  
“Fiance,” Tadashi automatically corrects him before blushing and saying, “Um, would you mind giving us a couple minutes? He has been out of town for the last two weeks…”  
“Say no more!” Hiro chuckles. “Go do whatever it is you do with him, we’ll be waiting here whenever you’re done.”  
He was expecting to get some sort of reaction out of the older man for using so many innuendos, but Tadashi must have really been distracted because he pretty much bolted out of the room without even another word to him.  
“Dang--he must really like this guy,” Ezra says with a slight smile.   
“I’d say a lot more than just likes him,” Hiro snarks playfully when he hears the sound of very enthusiastic kissing coming from the front entryway.   
“Is it weird for you thinking that your brother’s, like, actually engaged to get married?” Ezra asks curiously.  
“Not too weird, I guess,” Hiro answers with a slight shrug. “I mean… He is twenty-two. He’s certainly old enough for it.”  
“I know, but last time you saw him you were both just kids!”  
“True… But you know that I don’t really have a lot of memories of that, so it’s more like making a new friend who’s already engaged,” Hiro says after a moment of contemplation. “I mean, I know he’s my brother but I don’t think that’s really completely set in yet…”  
“Makes sense,” Ezra says with a wry smile. “I’d feel the same way too in your situation.”  
“Yeah.” Hiro flashes him a smile, grateful to have someone to talk to about how admittedly weird all of this still was for him, before sitting up a little straighter when Tadashi finally returns, hand in hand with a slightly shorter male who had dark blond hair tied back into a ponytail and was wearing an Avengers t-shirt.   
“Guys, this is Fred,” Tadashi says, the love he had for the other man evident in his expression. “Fred, this is my brother, Hiro, and his boyfriend, Ezra.”  
“Hey.” Hiro nods in greeting before getting up to shake the newcomer’s hand. Maybe he hadn’t been brought up under the best of conditions thanks to that horrible foster home, but he had had proper manners pounded into him (he just chose when or when not to use them, oftentimes to the great annoyance of his ex-foster “parents”.)   
“Hi!” Fred answers with possibly the friendliest smile Hiro had ever encountered as he returns the gesture. It was like the guy was exuding the same type of friendliness as a squirmy little puppy in the park--you just couldn’t not like him even when you’d just met him. “It’s so awesome to finally meet you! Tadashi’s been texting me all week telling me how excited he is to have you here!”  
“Really?” Hiro flashes his slightly embarrassed looking older brother a curious look.   
“Totally! You should have seen the text he sent me when you first showed up, I swear the thing was in all caps with more exclamation points than would be considered holy and took me at least thirty minutes to read!” Fred answers with a laugh before adding with a warm smile, “You have no idea how much he missed you all those years--he’s been looking for you for as long as I’ve known him. It’s good to know you guys are finally back together.”  
“How exactly did you guys meet?” Hiro asks, partly because he was curious and partly because he didn’t want his brother to see how much he was blushing from finding out just how much he cared about him.   
“That’s kind of a long story…” Tadashi says with an awkward laugh.   
“A long story, but an awesome story!” Fred declares, pecking him on the cheek.   
“I don’t mind hearing a long story,” Hiro declares with a slight grin.   
“Me neither!” Ezra agrees, just as curious as his boyfriend.   
“Hm… I’ll make you a deal,” Fred says after a moment of thought. “We tell you our story, and you tell us one of your stories, that way you guys can get know me a little bit and I can get to know you!”  
“One of our stories? I’m not sure we’ve got anything you guys would really want to hear about…” Hiro says uncertainly, not sure he wanted to make this deal.  
“Turnabout fair play, little bro,” Tadashi answers with a tiny smirk. “Take the deal or don’t, it’s up to you.”  
“...All right, fine!” Hiro sighs. “Just don’t expect anything ridiculously gooey and romantic or anything!”  
“Deal!” Fred agrees with a grin before gesturing to the living room. “C’mon, we should probably sit down because this might take a while!”  
“Right!” Hiro agrees--maybe he wasn’t too sure about where this was headed, but he’d be damned if he didn’t see this through.  
“Now c’mon!” he says with a grin as soon as he and Ezra are settled on the couch across from the other two. “Get spilling already!”  
“Okay, okay!” Tadashi sighs. “Fred, do you want to start us off?”  
“Nah,” Fred answers with a playful smile. “I’m honestly excited to hear your version of things!”  
“...That wasn’t part of the deal!”  
“I’m making it a part of the deal!”  
“Rude!” Tadashi playfully sticks his tongue out at him.  
“Guys, c’mon, stop flirting and get telling!” Hiro groans, rolling his eyes but more amused than frustrated.   
“Fine, fine, I’ll go!” Tadashi sighs before settling down more comfortably in his chair. “Okay, so this was in our senior year of high school, just to give you some background. Fred had transferred in the previous year from a private school--”  
“Because I’d gotten kicked out for being gay!” Fred puts in.   
“Yes, because of that,” Tadashi agrees with a tiny smirk. “Of course, I didn’t know that at the time. Heck, I was still trying to figure my own sexuality out--I’d always thought I was straight even though I wasn’t really into girls just because I hadn’t really considered the other options. But then I started noticing other guys… Y’know, in that way around my junior year. When I met Fred I was still kind of teetering on the edge, but then the first time I saw him any all doubts about being gay totally went out the window.”  
“Aw, that’s so sweet!” Ezra cries even as Hiro makes fake gagging noises at the ridiculously mushy expression on his elder sibling’s face.  
“Hey, you wanted to hear the story, I’m just telling it!” Tadashi tells the younger boy sternly. “I can stop at any time!”  
“Okay, fine, fine,” Hiro agrees, rolling his eyes and smirking. “Please, continue this ridiculously sappy story.”  
“Hiro--”  
“So, did you ask him out, or did he ask you out?” Ezra cuts in, trying to keep the peace.  
“That… Is also a rather tricky question,” Tadashi admits, sharing a knowing smile with Fred like it was some kind of inside joke between the two of them. “I guess we should start out with the day when we actually talked for the first time, which was about a year and a half after we’d actually sort of kind of met the first time.”  
“It took you guys that long to talk to each other?” Hiro asks in disbelief.  
“Are you going to listen or not?”   
“I’m listening, I’m listening!”  
“All right then! So, here’s what happened…”


	2. Chapter 2

It was a pretty slow Saturday at the Lucky Cat Cafe. Rainy season was in full swing, and between the wet and the cold most people were staying safely at home unless they absolutely had to be out braving the weather. A few customers came in just to warm up and try to wait out the rain, but for the most part they didn’t stay long before heading out to do battle with the city having what Aunt Cass poetically called it’s once a year period. Not exactly a very pleasant mental image, but it was pretty accurate for describing the nasty weather they were having. 

Tadashi was working the front counter, grateful that his job was right below the apartment where he lived in with his aunt so he didn’t have to go out and battle with the rain either on his way to or back from work. As it was, his shift was almost over and he was looking forward to being able to head upstairs and settle in with a good book for the rest of the afternoon and evening--there was nothing quite as peaceful as being warm under the covers with a good story while raindrops pattering on the window provided a soothing almost music-like sound in the background. Just another ten minutes and he’d finally be free! 

His replacement (a nice girl from school named Aiko) had just arrived and was putting her apron on in the back when suddenly a customer walks in the door and Tadashi freezes halfway through taking off his own apron. Even drenched from the rain, there was no mistaking the newcomer. I was Fred, a.k.a. the cute nerd he’d been crushing on since September of junior year. Tadashi had sat behind him in pre-Cal all last year and never actually gotten up the courage to talk to him, despite the fact that the other teen’s nerdy t-shirts, pin-covered backpack, and the countless superhero doodles in the margins of his notebooks should have given them plenty of things to talk about. The closest he’d ever come to actually talking to him was to squeak out some sort of greeting whenever Fred had passed papers back to him--wow, that had been pathetic. This year he thought he’d be smart and try sitting next to the guy when by some miracle they’d managed to end up in the same math class again. But even though it would have been so easy to talk to him when the teen was literally less than three feet away from him, Tadashi’s ridiculous amount of shyness had left him as tongue tied as the previous year, forcing him to just spend his seventh period sneaking longing looks across the row of desks at the guy he wanted more than anything to talk to. So much for his dreams of asking him to senior prom--he’d be lucky if he actually spoke a full sentence to him before graduation!  

And yet, in spite of all of that, here was his crush standing inside his aunt’s cafe for some inexplicable reason! Poor Tadashi was almost sure he was having a heart attack--was this supposed to be fate or something? As much as he wanted to go over and talk to him though, he found himself freezing up all over again. Gah, why was this crippling fear of rejection so, well… crippling?

He was about to slink back up into the main house like the coward he was and spend the next few hours moodily reading through trashy fanfic while beating himself up for being such a loser when suddenly he notices that the fanboy was pulling what looked like comics out of the bag that he was holding and looking down at them in dismay, probably because the rain had managed to get to them. If it had just been for the sake of his crush, Tadashi probably never would have managed it. But there were comics on the line here! Unexpected determination filling him, he makes his way across the cafe, not sure exactly what was going to happen but hoping for the best.

“How bad are they?” he asks, coming up next to the other man. 

“What?” Fred looks over at him surprised, obviously not having expected someone to suddenly start talking to him. Tadashi almost retreated right then and there, but he had come this far, he wasn’t going to give up now.

“T-The comics--are they badly damaged?” he asks, gesturing to the volumes lying on the table.

“Oh!” Fred looks even more surprised by his concern over the books, but instead of treating Tadashi like he had completely lost his mind, he just answers, “Hopefully nothing too bad since they were wrapped in plastic, but I got caught in the splash of a semi truck--it wasn’t pretty.”

“That’s horrible!” Tadashi gasps. 

“It just isn’t my day, I guess…” Fred sighs, shaking his head slightly. 

Something about the way he said it indicated that there was more to it than just getting drenched on the street, and seeing one of the happiest, most cheerful people he had ever met looking so broken down sent a dagger right through Tadashi’s heart. Somehow a determined, protective fire was lit in the teen’s chest, and, to both his and Fred’s great surprise, he suddenly firmly grasps the fanboy’s hand and says, “Follow me.”

“W-Where are we going?” Fred asks, seeming completely caught off guard but allowing himself to be dragged along anyways. 

“Up to the house--my aunt has a hair dryer we could probably use on those comics and we can get you some new clothes until yours have a chance to dry,” Tadashi answers, doing his best not to think about what he was doing and just let whatever force had taken over him keep doing its thing.

“You live above a cafe?” Fred asks with open curiosity as Tadashi leads him through the door leading to the stairs up into the main house. “That’s pretty cool!”

“My aunt owns this place, it kind of works out really well for us,” Tadashi answers with a smile, glad that the other man approved. 

“It sounds like it! You don’t even have to go out in this rain to get to work--how awesome is that?”

“Very awesome!” Tadashi chuckles, feeling a happy spark in his chest when Fred laughs too. Oh man, he had it  _ so _ bad…

“Wait here,” he says when they finally reach the top of the second set of stairs that led into his attic bedroom. “I’ll find some dry clothes for you and then you can change in the bathroom, okay?”

“Wow, you don’t actually have to--!” Fred starts to protest, but Tadashi quickly cuts him off.

“I want to,” he says with a warm smile that he hoped didn’t border on creepy because his intentions right now were actually totally pure. 

“Okay,” Fred agrees, nodding and gingerly sitting down on the end of the bed while Tadashi heads into the closet to find him a change of clothes. The young man was doing his best not to hyperventilate at the fact that his crush was actually  _ in his bedroom _ and about to be wearing his clothes. Oh gosh, this was like something from a cheesy anime, only he didn’t know if this was the happy type or the type where things just got super awkward. Somewhat blindly, Tadashi hurries to find a t-shirt and some pants that he hoped would actually fit the other guy--they were different body types, but hopefully they were close enough that this would work.

He was just walking out of the closet, a set of dry clothes in his hand, when Fred suddenly says, “Tadashi, right?”

“W-What?” Tadashi stammers, slightly caught off guard by the sound of the other man actually saying his name. 

“You’re Tadashi, right?” Fred repeats, a small smile on his face. “We have Calculus together--you sit right across from me!”

“R-Right!” Tadashi agrees, surprised but not at all displeased to find out that his crush at least knew his name. 

“I thought you looked familiar!” Fred chuckles. “Usually I’d be a bit more wary about going into a stranger’s house, but I could have sworn that I knew you from somewhere, and now I know where!”

“Y-Yeah,” Tadashi agrees, giving him a shy smile. “I mean, we are classmates--it didn’t seem right to have you standing there dripping in the cafe when I could help you out, y’know?”

“Not a lot of people might share the same sentiment, but I seriously appreciate it,” Fred tells him with a grateful grin.  

Tadashi knew that he was probably blushing bright pink, but he couldn’t really bring himself to care as he grins back at him, Finally, realizing that he was probably looking like a complete and total lovesick idiot (which he was), he quickly shoves the dry clothes into the other man’s arms and says, “U-Um, you can change in the bathroom! I-I’ll be downstairs trying to dry the comics, okay?”

“Okay, thank y--” Fred starts to say, but Tadashi was already hurrying down the stairs before he could make even more of an idiot of himself than he already was. 

About ten minutes later, the comics were in an at least better state than they had been when Fred had entered the cafe--there was a bit of water damage, which was unavoidable, but for the most part it was almost impossible to notice. Tadashi shuts off the hairdryer that he’d plugged into the outlet by the stove (the kitchen table seemed like the most reasonable place to dry them), satisfied with his work. He could only hope that the other man would be as pleased with the results--

“Hey.” 

Tadashi’s head snaps up when he hears the fanboy’s voice--apparently the whine of the hair dryer had blocked out the sound of his footsteps on the stairs--and he’s seriously afraid that he is going to completely lose it right there on the spot. Fred was a bit shorter than him and a lot more on the gangly side, so Tadashi’s clothes were adorably too-big on him--the neck of the t-shirt (shit, why had he given him a v-neck?!) even dipped down to expose the upper part of his chest. 

“You okay?” Fred asks when Tadashi fails to actually respond to him (the poor guy was doing his best to think of bloated dead worms floating in puddles and anything else as disgusting that might help him hold it together.) “Let me guess, I look like a total dork right now, right?”

“N-No!” Tadashi finally manages to get out. “Y-You look fine!”

“Not sure that you’re not lying just to spare my feelings, but thanks,” Fred chuckles, shuffling across the kitchen in the too-long sweatpants he was wearing to join the other man at the table. 

“Whoa, you did an awesome job!” he cries, grinning when he sees the comics. “You can barely tell they got wet!”

“Thanks!” Tadashi flashes him a relieved smile, glad that the fanboy was upset about the tiny bit of wrinkling that had come as a result of getting damp. “I think they probably need to air dry a bit more, but they should be fine in a little bit!”

“Epic!” Fred grins back at him before admitting, “I only hope the rest of my backpack is as lucky…”

“Oh, we could try to dry that too,” Tadashi offers, wanting to be helpful.

“Nah, it’s nothing major,” Fred answers, waving aside his concern. “It probably just needs to air dry too.”

“All right, if you’re sure…”

“I’m sure.” 

Tadashi has to do his best not to melt under that ridiculously adorable smile, and they pretty much spend the next minute somewhat awkwardly smiling at each other, not really sure what to say, until Fred asks, “So, um… What do you want to do now? I mean, if you have plans, I don’t want to impose!”

“Oh, no, I don’t have any plans!” Tadashi quickly tells him, only to realize what a dork he must sound like with no plans on a Saturday night--then again, Fred was a nerd too, so maybe he understood?

“Cool.” The fanboy flashes him an easy smile. “Me neither. Do you just want to hang out until the rain stops?”

“Sure!” Tadashi agrees, knowing that he was probably sounding way too eager but not able to help himself. “I mean, I could put on a movie or a show or something…?”

“That sounds great,” Fred agrees with a grin. “You have anything in mind?”

“Well…” Tadashi considers this before asking, “You feel up to a Harry Potter marathon?”

“Always!” Fred answers eagerly. 

“Nice reference,” Tadashi chuckles. 

“...I did not plan that, but nice catch!” Fred laughs before adding, “This is perfect weather for a HP movie watching party--I mean, when’s a better time for visiting Hogwarts than when it’s all dark and rainy and mysterious outside?”

“Right?” Tadashi agrees, so happy to have someone outside of his aunt who actually understood.

“C’mon, what are we waiting for?” Fred asks with a grin, heading for the living room.

“Nothing!” Tadashi replies, happily following after him and going to put the first movie in the disc player. 

Once the movie is in, he isn’t quite sure if he should sit, but when Fred invitingly pats the cushion on the couch next to him, Tadashi decides to go for it--when would he get another chance like this? All of this was so outside of what he’d usually be doing, but something about the fanboy just made him feel… Comfortable. Like they’d been best friends their whole lives even though this was the first time they’d ever really talked to each other. Even if nothing romantic ever came out of this, if they could at least be friends that would be good enough for him. 

The first movie was a lot of fun, trading quips and fan theories about different characters while totally fanboying over how adorably tiny all of the main characters were this early on in the series. 

“If I could choose a little bro or sis, I would totally pick one of these guys!” Fred chuckles as they watch the main three battling the troll. 

“Are you an only child?” Tadashi asks curiously--he didn’t know that much about the other man’s family, but he wasn’t averse to learning about them.

“Yep,” Fred agrees with a wry smile, leaning his head against the back of the couch. “Definitely an only child. No one’s ever told me to my face, but I’m pretty sure my parents weren’t even planning on having me--that I was an accident. If my parents did actually want a kid, they were probably hoping for someone who lived up to their expectations a lot better than I do.”

“Fred, I’m so sorry,” Tadashi says softly, his heart breaking for him--how could anyone not want their own child?

“Eh, I deal with it,” Fred answers with a tiny shrug, his tone making it evident that he really didn’t want to talk about it. “How ‘bout you? What’s your family like?”

“Um… Dead, mostly,” Tadashi replies with a crooked smile. 

“Oh, shit, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to--!” Fred cries, looking slightly horrified.

“No, it’s fine,” Tadashi hurries to reassure him. “Sorry, that came out wrong. I just… Pretty much no extended family, and my parents died in a car crash when I was eight. I have a little brother, Hiro, but he’s lost somewhere in the foster care system--my aunt and I have been trying to find him for years now, and it’s like he just… disappeared. I can only hope that he’s happy wherever he is and not actually, y’know…” Tadashi swallows thickly, feeling hot tears beginning to prick the back of his eyes--idiot, why was he bringing all of this up with a virtual stranger?

But then, to his great surprise, Fred was suddenly wrapping his arms around him in a tight hug, whispering in his ear, “Tadashi, I’m so sorry, I can’t even imagine what that must be like… I must sound like a total jerk, complaining about my family when at least I still have mine…”  

“We’ve both got some pretty fucked up family situations,” Tadashi answers with a wry smile, gratefully returning the hug. “I don’t think it’s right to try to make one of them better or worse than the other.” 

“I guess…” Fred agrees uncertainly before finally gently pulling away. Tadashi’s whole body starts to protest, wanting the comforting contact back, until he sees a look in the other man’s eyes that absolutely takes his breath away. 

“Look, I may not be able to do much, but my dad’s got some friends in some pretty high places,” the fanboy says, his voice soft and tinged with something the other man couldn’t quite identify. “I can talk to him, see if maybe he could help with finding your little brother. I mean, if anyone can find something out, it’s him.”

“Y-You would do that?” Tadashi gasps, staring at him in amazement. 

“Of course,” Fred answers, reaching over to gently squeeze his hands in his own. “No one deserves to be without their family if they can help it.” 

Tadashi didn’t even think about what he was doing or what the consequences might be until it was too late--his whole body was already practically humming with barely suppressed hormones, and with this sudden surge of gratitude and hope rushing through veins, before he knew what he was doing he was leaning across the couch and kissing Fred. It was only on the cheek and it only lasted for a few seconds. But the moment he realizes what he’s just done, all of his relief in his body is quickly turned to horror--shit, shit, shit, shit, he had just royally fucked up!   
“O-Oh my gosh, I-I’m so sorry!” he gasps, cheeks flushing bright red, sure that he had just royally ruined any chances he had of ever even being friends with the other guy.

But then, to his great amazement, Fred grins--actually grins!--before answering, “I’m not!”

“W-What?” Tadashi stammers, sure he had misheard him. 

“Dude, I’ve been totally wanting to kiss you all afternoon,” Fred laughs, fondly reaching over to tuck a loose strand of hair behind the other man’s ear. “I mean, you are majorly hot and I was totally getting a gay vibe off of you, but I didn’t want to say or do anything until I knew you were okay with this sort of thing.”

“I-I… R-Really?” Tadashi finally manages to squeak out. 

“Totally!” Fred chuckles before adding with a playful smile, “You look super cute when you blush, you know that?”

“N-No…” Tadashi answers, feeling slightly light headed--was this actually happening? 

But then the other man was pulling him closer, whispering so that his warm breath tickled his ear, “You want to try a real kiss this time?”

“M-Maybe…” Tadashi stammers, swallowing thickly. 

“It’s okay if you don’t,” Fred answers gently, noticing just how freaked out he was acting. 

“I-I… I’ve just never actually kissed someone before,” Tadashi quietly admits.

“Someone as gorgeous as you? How is that even possible?” Fred asks. “It’s like a crime against nature or something!”

“Just… Never found the right guy, I guess,” Tadashi answers, blushing even brighter red.

“And am I lucky enough to be the right guy?” Fred gently prompts him.

“Yes,” Tadashi breathes before pulling him into a real kiss. Fireworks instantly go off in his head as the fanboy’s lips meet his own, moving ever so gently together like they were in dance that had been choreographed just for them. It was everything a first kiss was supposed to be and more. 

“W-Wow…” he gasps when they finally break apart for air, eyelids fluttering. “That was…”

“Amazing?” Fred supplies, practically beaming at him. 

“Totally,” Tadashi agrees, grinning back at him. 

“Glad we can agree on that,” Fred chuckles warmly, his arms moving to gently wrap around the other man’s waist, and Tadashi makes no effort to break away from him. 

“So, um… What exactly does this mean?” he finally asks after a few minutes of just contentedly basking in the afterglow of their first kiss. “For us, I mean.”

“It can mean anything you want it to,” Fred answers gently. “I’m pretty much open to anything.”

“I, um… I honestly never thought I’d get this far,” Tadashi admits, flushing and feeling the back of his neck growing warm. “I don’t even know what’s supposed to happen after something like this unless real life is anything like the cheesy fanfics I read…”

“It can be,” Fred tells him with a playful smile. 

“Well, um… You want to try being boyfriends?” Tadashi asks, some of his earlier shyness returning to him at the use of the word he never thought he’d be lucky enough to use to describe his relationship with someone else.

“I definitely wouldn’t be opposed to that!” Fred answers, grinning at him. 

“Awesome!” Tadashi knows that he’s probably grinning back at him like a total idiot, but he can’t bring himself to care. 

After that the two don’t say much for the rest of the movie, both having said everything that they needed to say for the moment. Tadashi certainly doesn’t mind it, though, when Fred gently adjusts their positions so that they could snuggle while watching. Right before the end of the movie, though, the fanboy suddenly says in a soft voice, “Hey, Dashi?”

“Y-Yeah?” Tadashi answers, flushing at the use of the nickname that only his family had ever used for him before but liking the way it sounded coming from the lips of the guy he was by some miracle actually dating! 

“Can I make a confession?”

“S-Sure,” Tadashi replies, not really sure where this was going but hoping that it wasn’t something that was going to make things weird or awkward between them. 

“Well… You know how I kind of acted like I didn’t really recognize you until we were up in your room?” 

“Yeah, what about it?”

“The truth is… I totally recognized you the minute I walked in here. I swear I wasn’t trying to stalk you or anything, I seriously had no idea this was your aunt’s cafe! But when I saw you in here, I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to let you know that I knew who you are since we’ve never really talked before without letting on that I’ve had a major crush on you since junior year…”

“Y-You’ve had a crush on me?” Tadashi gasps. 

“Guilty as charged,” Fred answers with a nervous smile. 

“I-I’ve had a crush on you since then too!”

“No way--seriously?”

“Yeah, why do you think I moved so that I was sitting across from you this year?!”

“Oh my gosh…” Fred looks momentarily stunned before suddenly laughing. “We are such nerds, aren’t we?”

“Just a little bit,” Tadashi agrees, grinning up at him from his extremely comfortable position with his head against the fanboy’s chest. 

“I guess fate was just finally had enough of quietly shipping us from the background and decided to finally give us a much needed shove in the right direction,” Fred chuckles, grinning back at him. 

“I guess so!” Tadashi answers, contentedly nuzzling up against him. “I’m super glad that it did…”

“Me too, Dashi,” Fred answers, smiling down at him as he gently cuddles him closer. “Me too.”

0o0

“Okay, no way. No way that corny story is how you actually got together!” Hiro cries.

“It’s the complete and total truth, I swear on Baymax’s hard drive,” Tadashi answers, playfully putting one hand in the air like a scout. 

“I can definitely corroborate it, given I was there for the whole thing,” Fred agrees, gently squeezing his boyfriend’s free hand. 

“I think it’s sweet!” Ezra declares. 

“You would,” Hiro answers, rolling his eyes but smiling slightly all the same. 

“So, now you’ve heard our story,” Fred says, one knee bouncing up and down with anticipation. “Now it’s time for you to tell us yours!”

“That was the deal!” Tadashi agrees with a grin.

“All right, fine, we’ll tell you a story,” Hiro answers with a dramatic sigh. “But not how we got together, that’s between me and Ez!”

“Not fair!” Tadashi protests. “We just told you all the embarrassing details of our story!”

“How about a better story?” Ezra quickly cuts in to prevent a fight from starting. “The story of the night we ran away?”

“That could be good!” Fred agrees with an eager grin. 

“I have been wonderging about that,” Tadashi admits.

“Okay then, that’s the story we’re going with!” Hiro happily latches onto his easy out. 

“Want me to start?” Ezra offers. 

“If you want to, go for it!” Hiro replies.

“As long as we get to hear the story, I really don’t care who tells it!” Fred chuckles. 

“All right.” Ezra settles onto the stool he was sitting on, trying to go back to the exact events of the day. “It was actually the day before Hiro’s birthday…”


	3. Chapter 3

Ezra was extremely excited as he makes his up to the attic. Tomorrow was Hiro’s birthday, and even if their horrible foster parents weren’t going to do anything special for it, he was bound and determined that the two of them were going to have their own special celebration. This afternoon he’d managed to get permission to go into town, supposedly to pick up some groceries, which he had done, but his real purpose was to get some supplies so they could properly celebrate. He couldn’t get much--anything he bought had to be able to be hidden inside his backpack and stashed in the attic, plus he had barely any money of his own to spend. Still, he’d managed to get two cupcakes from the bakery as well as a special part that Hiro had been wanting for ages for an invention. The plan was to also see if he could snag something from the foster parents’ liquor cabinet (they were underage, sure, but they went through enough hell that they felt justified), but he’d have to see if that actually happened because the ‘rents kept a very close eye on the contents of their cabinet. Still, maybe he could siphon out a tiny bit to mix with the soda he’d also managed to get at the store. All in all, everything was coming together nicely, and Ezra was in an exceptionally good mood. That is, until he actually got to the attic. 

He’d honestly expected the attic to be empty at this time of day--all the other kids were supposed to be doing chores, and Hiro should have been at the job their guardians had forced him to get after graduating early from high school at thirteen. Only it turned out Hiro wasn’t at his job--he couldn’t be, because he was curled up in a tiny ball on the bed that he and Ezra shared. Ezra didn’t even realize that his backpack had slipped out of his hands, and he couldn’t have brought himself to care even if he had noticed--something was obviously very,  _ very _ wrong, and he needed to find out what so he could try to fix it.

“Hiro--Hiro, what’s wrong?” he cries as he hurries over to the bed. 

Hiro didn’t answer, just curling even tighter in on himself, his whole body visibly shaking. 

“Love...” Ezra says softly as he crawls onto the bed, carefully pulling his boyfriend’s tiny form up against his own, willing some sort of comfort he was trying to give him to transfer to the younger boy as he hugs him close. “Please. Tell me what’s going on.”

“Y-Y’know how our foster parents made me lie on my application and say I was sixteen and just small for my age so I could get the job?” Hiro finally manages to get out, his voice soft and broken.

“Yeah,” Ezra agrees with a frown--he still felt it was royally f*ed up that they’d done that in the first place.

“A-Apparently my boss finally looked into it and found out that I’m actually only fourteen--f-fifteen tomorrow, but still… I-I got fired…” 

“Oh, Hiro…” Ezra gently cuddles him closer. “I’m so sorry… But… Maybe this is a good thing? I mean, you hated that job and now our foster parents can’t force you into going there anymore--”

“T-They can’t,” Hiro agrees, voice cracking, “A-And when they found out, they got really, really mad…”

He finally tilts his face up so that Ezra could see it, and when the other teen sees it, he lets out a horrified gasp. There were dark bruises covering Hiro’s usually porcelain skin and a nasty cut along the one cheek. 

“T-They did this to you?” Ezra whispers, feeling his body starting to shake with barely controlled rage. He had been willing to go through many things over the years, just ducked his head and kept his mouth shut and kept going. But this--this was taking things too far. They had dared to lay hands on his precious Hiro, and that was completely unforgivable.

“I-It’s not just that…” Hiro whispers, and Ezra instantly feels fresh dread sweeping through him. 

“W-What else could there be?” 

“S-Since I can’t work anymore and I could get them into trouble if my boss turns them in, t-they’re talking about sending me away…”

“Send you away?” Ezra gasps, horror coiling in his stomach like a venomous snake waiting to pounce. “N-No! T-They can’t separate us! I might never see you again!”

“I know…” Hiro curls up against him, starting to quietly sob. “B-But there’s nothing we can do… W-We’re just kids, the government has the final say in all of this…”

For a full minute--probably the worst minute of his entire life--Ezra just lies there next to his boyfriend, feeling completely helpless at the prospect of the horrible future stretching out before him. Hiro was the one good thing in his otherwise hellish life. Without him, he didn’t even know if he’d have the will to go on. 

As soon as that thought hits him, he knows that there is no way he’s going to let this happen. He would not let Hiro get taken away from him, and he was never going to let another person lay their filthy hands on the love of his life. 

“We’re leaving,” he says suddenly, the words coming out with more force than he’d intended. 

“L-Leaving?” Hiro looks up at him in quiet shock. “W-What are you talking about? We don’t have anywhere to go!” 

“Doesn’t matter,” Ezra answers firmly. “Anywhere we go will be better than here.”

“W-We’re running away?” Hiro whispers, fear and relief mingling on his face. 

“We are,” Ezra agrees, his grip tightening on his boyfriend. “I mean, how many nights have we stayed up planning in detail how we’d do it?”

“But we said we’d only do it if it was an emergency…”

“Hiro, you were physically beaten today and they’re about to try to send you away! If this isn’t an emergency, what is?”

“We’d still be in a lot of danger… What if the cops come after us and we get caught?”

“Either we go and take that risk, or we stay here and know for sure that something horrible is going to happen. At least this way we have a chance!”

“...All right.”

“All right? Does that mean--?”

“Yeah.” Hiro nods before looking up at him, a look of determination on his face. “You’re right. Staying here is suicide--potentially literally. Running away is our best option. Let’s do this.”

“I’m glad you agree.” Ezra tenderly kisses his forehead, pulling him close before saying softly, “C’mon, let’s get packing while no one’s up here. We can hide our backpacks under the bed and then sneak out tonight.”

“Sounds good,” Hiro agrees, a small frown on his face that told the other teen that he was thinking hard. “We’ll need money if we’re going to be able to make it on our own…”

“I guess we can find jobs wherever we end up going…” Ezra says slowly. “But you’re right, we need something just to get bus fare out of here… I hate the idea of stealing, but we might have to…”

“No need to steal,” Hiro answers with a small smirk. “Our  _ wonderful _ foster parents forcing me to get a job did one good thing--I made a decent bit of money with all the hours I worked and the tips I got, so we can use that.”

“But I thought they took all your checks for ‘safe keeping’,” Ezra says, frowning in confusion.

“They did,” Hiro agrees with a tiny smirk. “But I kept close tabs on how much I made, so if we withdrew that much from their account, it wouldn’t be stealing since it is my money, right?”

“That is true,” Ezra agrees thoughtfully. “But how are we supposed to get money out of their bank account?”

“You forget that I’m a genius,” Hiro answers with a tiny smirk. “I figured out their bank account password years ago just in case I ever needed it. If we stop at a couple different ATM’s along the way, we should be able to get all of the money we need.”

“That actually works,” Ezra agrees with a grin. 

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah! Now c’mon, let’s get packing before the others get up here so they won’t turn us in.”

“Right!” Hiro agrees, starting to get up to go find his old school backpack. But then he suddenly stops to turn and kiss his boyfriend’s cheek. “No matter what happens, at least we’ll be together,” he says softly.

“Yeah,” Ezra answers, gently squeezing his hand. “Together.”

 

The rest of the day passed in a bit of a blur--the two boys scurrying to pack everything that was important to them into their backpacks and then hiding the bags well underneath the bed so that no one would see them and figure out what they were planning. Ezra realized that he sadly wouldn’t be able to bring along the stuff he’d gotten for Hiro’s birthday--he needed all the space he could get in his backpack--so they ended up having the cupcakes and soda a day early, sort of as a mini-celebration of both Hiro’s birthday and of their plan for a daring escape. They managed to finish everything right before the others came up to wash for dinner. When they were finally called down for supper, Ezra keeps a protective hold on his boyfriend’s hand all through the meal--he wasn’t going to give their foster parents a chance to hurt the love of his life ever again, although fortunately, aside from a few nasty glares, they didn’t actually try do anything. 

As soon as dinner was over, the two hurried back up the stairs, telling to the others that they were tired and were going to bed early--seeing the condition that Hiro was in, no one asked any questions. Ezra knew that technically they should get some actual sleep, but if they overslept they’d miss their chance to get out of here and so they settled on sleeping in shifts--one of them would actually sleep for an hour while the other one pretended to sleep but actually kept a close eye on the clock, and then they’d trade off. When one is about to do something ridiculously dangerous and all they can do is lie still and stare at a clock, time seems to come to an absolute standstill. Each minute becomes an hour, and it was pretty much the longest night of Ezra’s life. At least there was some distraction when the others started getting ready for bed--he could listen to the activities and conversations of the others as they moved around the room. A small part of him felt bad about not saying goodbye to any of the kids he had shared a room with for years. But, as he reflected on it, he had never been particularly close to any of them and so he didn’t have too much to regret. Once the others went to sleep, he traded off shifts with Hiro, and then when he was woken up an hour later, it was to a completely still house. They’d both agreed to wait until midnight to actually leave--their foster parents went to bed early, usually around ten, but waiting the two extra hours would ensure that all of the adults and kids in the house should be asleep. As much as the silence was stifling, at least since his roommates were all out he didn’t have to fake being asleep and so he allows himself to turn over and look up at the ceiling, reminiscing about the years he’d lived here. Most of it had been awful, but having Hiro come into his life was the best thing that had ever happened to him. That’s why he was willing to risk everything tonight to make sure that he never lost his precious light. 

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the clock flipped from 11:59 pm to 12:00 am, and by the sudden movement from Hiro, Ezra could tell that his boyfriend had been watching the clock as eagerly as he had.

“You ready for this?” the blue haired teen whispers, looking down at the younger boy.

“Yeah,” Hiro breathes, grinning up at him. “Let’s do this.”

The two ease carefully out of bed, barely daring to breathe as they retrieve their bags from underneath the bed. Then it’s over to the empty doorway (their host parents removed the doors from all of the dormitories to prevent the kids from being able to hide anything behind a closed doors, and in this case it actually worked to the teens’ advantages) before making their way down the stairs, carefully avoiding every creaky board that they’d learned the positions of from years of sneaking around the house for much less high-stake reasons. Then it’s into the kitchen where Hiro carefully works to disarm the security system their foster parents had installed to try to prevent such attempts at running away. They kept the passcode a secret and changed it often, but Hiro had no issues quickly figuring it out and, in less than a minute, had it shut off.

“You ready for this?” the younger teen asks in the softest of voices as he undoes the latch on the door, repeating Ezra’s earlier question to him. “We do this, and there’s no going back.”

“Staying here means losing you,” Ezra answers firmly. “I’d take any chance if it meant even the smallest possibility of staying together.”

Hiro beams up at him, leaning in gently to peck his lips in gratitude, before gently prying open the door. And then they were off.

 

Their first stop was at the atm outside the gas station just down the street from their house.

“You don’t think they’ll see us on the security cameras, do you?” Ezra asks worriedly, glancing up at the lens staring accusingly down at them as Hiro works to type in the necessary information. 

“If they do, by the time they see it it’ll be too late to stop us--we’ll be long gone,” Hiro answers impatiently. “Now hush, I’m trying to concentrate!”

“Sorry!” Ezra apologizes, quickly clamping his mouth shut.

“Okay, I’m in!” Hiro cries about a minute later.

“You are?” Ezra asks eagerly. 

“Yes!” Hiro answers. “Now let me just see if I can get my money from here and then we can--shit.”

“What is it?” Ezra asks worriedly “What’s wrong?” 

“The maximum you can withdraw from here in one day is $1000,” Hiro quietly growls. 

“$1000 is a lot of money!” Ezra points out, eyes going wide--he’d never even seen that much money all in one place before!

“Not in comparison to how much I actually made,” Hiro sighs. “And trust me, we’ll go through it pretty fast, even if we do manage to find small jobs wherever we go.”

“So we can get more money tomorrow from a different machine?” Ezra suggests hesitantly. 

“No, they’ll probably have changed all the passcodes by then, and even if I figure them all out they’d be able to track us by seeing which atm machine we used!” Hiro tells him. 

“Oh… Yeah, I guess we can’t, then,” Ezra says, heart sinking slightly. 

“Well, nothing we can do about it--let’s just get the money we can from this thing and get out of here,” Hiro sighs.

“A-Are we going to be okay?” Ezra asks quietly as the machine starts to spit out the allotted money. “I mean, if we don’t have enough money to be able to do this…”

“Don’t worry,” Hiro reassures him, gently reaching over to squeeze his hand before carefully collecting the bills and tucking them into his bag. “I probably should have thought of this ahead of time, but at least I did somewhat think ahead so we should still be all right for a while.”

“What do you mean?” Ezra asks, frowning slightly in confusion. 

“Well… The truth is, I haven’t been giving our foster parents all my tips. I had to give them enough so that they wouldn’t realize I was holding out on them--and if they wondered about the amount, I guess they assume that I’m just a crappy worker--and so I managed to squirrel away about half of what I made, saving it up just in case,” Hiro admits.

“That’s great!” Ezra grins at him, feeling a bit of relief in his chest--okay, so maybe things weren’t so bad!

“Plus there’s the money I made on the side..”

“O-On the side…?” Ezra frowns at that. “What do you mean by that?”

“Okay, promise you won’t be mad?”

“Hiro, what exactly have you been doing?”

“Well, you know those weekends when I’d say I had to work both morning and evening shifts?” 

“Yes…”

“A lot of those weekends, I was technically only working at the cafe in the morning. In the evening, I went to my ‘other job’...”

“Hiro, so help me, if you don’t stop talking like Yoda and give me a straight answer--”

“I’ve been bot fighting, okay?”

“...Bot fighting?” Ezra stares at him in disbelief. 

“Look, I’m not saying I’m completely proud of it, and I know you’re going to give me a huge lecture on safety and how I could have gotten majorly hurt if something went wrong,” Hiro sighs. “But I knew that if we were ever going to be able to make it on our own, whether we ran away or eventually got ‘too old’ for our foster parents and they dumped us on the streets since they couldn’t make money off us anymore, that we’d need some cash to get us started. And I made good money in the ring--like, super amazingly good money. So I’ve been saving it up just to be safe. I know you may not like it, but it may be what gets us through the next months or even years if we can’t find work.”

“I… Okay, you’re right, I don’t like that you were putting yourself in danger like that,” Ezra sighs. “But I can see where your intentions were in the right place… I swear I won’t yell at you as long as you promise me one thing.”

“What’s that?” Hiro asks nervously. 

“That, the next time you feel you need to go to a bot fight, you take me with you--two are better than one and I’d feel safer knowing that I was with you instead of just worrying myself sick over how you might be doing,” Ezra answers, putting his hands gently on Hiro’s shoulders.

“Deal!” Hiro agrees, grinning in relief up at him. 

“Good.” Ezra smiles and gently pecks him on the lips. “Now c’mon, I think we’ve got a bus to catch.”

“Right!” Hiro agrees and, together, they hurry off down the street together and towards their future.

~~~

“Wow,” Fred says, blinking in surprise as the story comes to an end. “That was…”

“Insane?” Hiro offers.

“Yeah, exactly,” Fred agrees. 

“I-I can’t believe you guys had to go through all of that,” Tadashi says softly. “T-That foster home… I can’t believe they actually let people like that have custody of kids!”

“Same,” Ezra sighs. “But sadly it does happen…” 

“On the plus side, we’re out of there so they can’t hurt us anymore!” Hiro adds optimistically.

“That is true…” Tadashi agrees with a small smile. 

“So, what happened at the bus station?” Fred asks curiously. “Were you able to get a bus without any trouble? And where the heck did you even go?”

“Okay, to answer the first question--yes, by some miracle there was a weird connecting bus thing happening at 3 am heading to LA that night and so we managed to get a ride on it, telling the lady at the ticket counter that we were heading there to visit our grandparents which is why we were travelling alone so late!” Hiro answers with a small grin. 

“I don’t think she would have bought it except Hiro turned up the innocent puppy act to, like, level 9000,” Ezra chuckles. “I think she would have handed over her soul if he’d asked!”

“Oh, c’mon, don’t exaggerate!” Hiro groans.

“I’m not exaggerating, I’m being perfectly serious here!” Ezra answers. 

“Somehow, even though I just met him, I believe it,” Fred says with a small smile. 

“So what happened after you guys got to LA?” Tadashi asks curiously. 

“Well, honestly we just focused on finding a cheap motel and then finding jobs the next day,” Ezra explains. 

“We managed to get a gig working as dishwashers in a small hole-in-the-wall,” Hiro adds. “The pay wasn’t great, but it was something, at least, and we needed to conserve our savings for as long as possible.”

“Makes sense.” Tadashi nods in understanding. “And the bot fighting--did you…?”

“Only a couple of times when we got really desperate,” Hiro answers with a small shrug.

“Don’t worry, I made sure he stayed safe!” Ezra puts in quickly.

“All right…” Tadashi doesn’t look fully convinced, but he nods.

“So, speaking of the cafe we worked in,” Hiro puts in as his stomach lets out a small gurgle, “all this storytelling is making me a bit hungry…”

“Okay, I get the picture!” Tadashi chuckles. “Taking a lunch break sound good to everyone?”

“I’m all for that!” Fred says eagerly. 

“Me too!” Ezra agrees. 

“Me three!” Hiro puts in happily. 

“Okay then, I’ll get right to work on that!” Tadashi tells them with a warm smile. 

“I can help if you want, love,” Fred says, putting a loving hand on his shoulder. 

“Only if you don’t mind!”

“Why would I mind having an excuse to spend time with you?”

“Aw, Freddy…” Tadashi flashes him a mushy grin. 

“You need any help from us?” Hiro asks with a tiny smirk.

“Nope, I think we’re good, you two just relax, okay?” Tadashi answers before eagerly pulling his boyfriend into the kitchen. 

“That was too easy…” Ezra chuckles.

“Right?” Hiro laughs. “I can see where we can have some ‘fun’ with those two…”

“So…” Ezra settles down next to him on the couch, slipping his arm around his boyfriend’s waist. “About your ending to our story… That was pretty tame compared to what actually happened that next night, wasn’t it?”

“Oh, Tadashi doesn’t need to know about everything…” Hiro playfully purrs as he grins mischievously over at him.

 

~~~

 

“Wow--our first motel room together!” Ezra chuckles as he and Hiro unlock the door to their room and flip on the lights. “Honestly… It’s not as romantic as I’d thought it would be, but at least the place doesn’t seem to be infested with bugs.”

“Beggars can’t be choosers!” Hiro declares, plopping his backpack down next to the bed. 

“Right,” Ezra agrees with a wry smile, doing likewise. “So… What do you want to do now?” 

“I mean, it’s too late to really start any job hunting tonight,” Hiro muses. “And I’m honestly too beat right now to actually fill out any applications even if it wasn’t…”

“I guess we could eat dinner?” Ezra suggests. 

“Maybe in a little bit,” Hiro answers. “All I really want to do right now is lie down…”

“Lying down is good, Ezra agrees with a firm nod, kicking off his shoes. “If that’s what you want to do, that’s what we’ll do!”

“Thanks…” Hiro flashes him a grateful smile, flopping down onto the bed before picking up the TV remote from the bedside table. “Huh… Want to see if there’s anything decent on given we’ve never really been allowed to pick our own shows since, well--ever?”

“Sounds good,” Ezra chuckles, joining him on the bed. 

“Awesome!” Hiro grins over at him before turning on the television and beginning to flip through the channels. Sadly there wasn’t much on, but eventually they settle on a show called “Once Upon a Time”--it might not be either of their forte, but it was better than all the infomercials and self-help programs. Hiro seemed to actually be getting pretty into the episode, and was quite surprised when Ezra suddenly uses the remote to turn the volume down pretty much all the way to zero. 

“You okay?” Hiro asks, glancing over at him and wondering if maybe he was having second thoughts about all of this. 

“I just…” Ezra looks over at him, seeming slightly nervous, before taking the other teen’s hands in his own. “I-It’s your birthday today…”

“It is, isn’t it?” Hiro agrees with a grin. “Wow, I’d almost forgotten with everything that happened!”

“Y-Yeah,” Ezra agrees, shyly rubbing the back of his neck. “But I didn’t, and, well… I-I was wondering if you wanted your birthday present?” 

“Oh, Ez, you didn’t have to get me anything!” Hiro cries. 

“I-I didn’t exactly get you something…” Ezra mumbles. “I mean… Technically I did, but I couldn’t bring it with, so this is kind of your other present. And it’s not exactly a present, but it’s pretty much the most important thing I could give anyone and--”

“Ez, you’re adorable when you start rambling, but do you think you could get to the point?” Hiro asks with a small smile, gently but firmly cutting him short. 

“Right, sorry!” Ezra apologizes, feeling intense heat rising in his cheeks. “I, um… I-It’s me. You’re birthday present is me--all of me, if you want me...”

Hiro’s eyes momentarily narrow with confusion and then widen as the meaning of his boyfriend’s words sink in. “O-Oh my gosh, Ezra… A-Are you saying--?”

“W-We don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with!” Ezra hurries to reassure him. “I just--I’ve known you for almost my entire life and we’ve been dating for a year now and I know that there’s no one else I will ever love like this and that I could ever want to give myself too--”

Hiro yet again mercifully cuts off his rambling, this time with a quick but still incredibly passionate kiss to his mouth. 

“Yes,” he whispers huskily, eyes shining as he looks up at his boyfriend. “I-I want you… All of you… And I want you to have all of me too, if you’ll have me.”

“Hiro…” This time it was Ezra pulling his boyfriend into a kiss, which quickly turned from soft, shy movements of their lips together to something much more heated as Hiro’s fingers reach up to tangle in the other man’s hair and Ezra pulls Hiro flesh against his body.

“A-Are you sure?” Ezra whispers when his boyfriend starts eagerly tugging at his shirt, not wanting to ruin the moment but wanting to make sure that they were both in total agreement on this--that it wasn’t something that Hiro was going to regret doing later and hate him for. 

“I am,” Hiro agrees in a tender whisper. “I-I love you so much... And I know that I want to be with you for the rest of my life…”

“Me too,” Ezra whispers before finally letting his boyfriend pull his shirt off all the way, exposing his bare chest to him. It wasn’t like Hiro hadn’t seen him shirtless before--it was bound to have happened living in the same room and sharing a bed all these years--but the way he was looking at him like he was the most beautiful thing in the world made his heart flutter sharply in his chest. But he knew that he definitely wasn’t the most beautiful thing in the world, because that title belonged to the amazing man who he loved more than anything who was already pulling off his own shirt to reveal his tiny, almost delicate form. 

“You’re sure?” Ezra asks one last time as he carefully moves so that he was over Hiro, feeling like his heart was about to fly right out through his mouth as the other teen starts eagerly fumbling with the button of his jeans. 

“Yes,” Hiro breathes, pausing momentarily to ask, “Y-You do want this too, right?”

“More than anything,” Ezra answers, tenderly stroking his cheek. 

“Then c’mon--let’s stop talking and actually do this,” Hiro answers, beaming up at him. 

“That’s all I needed to hear,” Ezra says with a warm smile before leaning down to pull him into a passionate kiss. 

 

About an hour later, Ezra found himself curled up next to Hiro, both of them still damp from their shower together, the blue haired teen enjoying the soft scent of the cherry blossom scented motel shampoo that still lingered in the other man’s hair. Tonight had definitely been the most amazing night of both of their lives, and, even now, Ezra knew what neither of them would ever regret a single moment of it. Tonight was the first night of the rest of their lives together and he knew that, no matter where life took them, as long as they were together they would be okay. No, they would be better than okay--as long as they were together, everything would be absolutely perfect. Would things be easy? Hell no. Would they have days when they’d question everything and if they’d made the right decision by running away? Absolutely. But as long as they knew how much they loved each other, then they could live with the consequences, because being together was the most important thing in the world, and nothing and no one could ever take that away from them.


End file.
